Do you know what the difference is between positivism and interpretivism?
Both are philosophical positions in sociology with diverse characteristics and approaches to sociological research. Interpretivism follows a more qualitative approach, while positivism adapts a scientific, quantitative method. Let us discuss positivism in more details, mentioning its definition, characteristics and criticism.
- We will first go over philosophical positions in sociological research, considering how positivism fits in.
- We will then touch upon the definition of positivism and its associated research methods.
- Finally, we'll look at the advantages and disadvantages of adopting a positivist approach in sociology.
Philosophical positions in sociology
It is important to consider why we call positivism a philosophical position in sociology. This is because philosophical positions are broad, overarching ideas about how humans are, and how they should be studied. They ask fundamental questions.
What causes human behaviour? Is it their personal motivations or social structures?
How should humans be studied?
Can we make generalizations about humans and society?
Positivism is a philosophical position that views people and human behaviour in a specific way. Therefore, to adopt a positivist approach, they should also be studied in a specific way.
Fig. 1 - Philosophical positions in sociology consider how humans should be studied
Positivism vs. Interpretivism
In sociology, positivism advocates applying the scientific method and studying society as governed by a collection of ‘social facts’ or laws (much as the natural laws govern the physical world). People’s behaviour is influenced by external factors such as institutions, social structures, systems – not internal factors such as people’s opinions or motivations. This approach is called macrosociology.
Positivism in sociological research is a philosophical position stating that knowledge of a social phenomenon is based upon what can be observed, measured, and recorded in the same way as in natural science.
The 'opposing' approach is called interpretivism, which maintains that humans cannot be studied using numbers because behaviours have meanings that cannot be understood using quantitative data. Proponents of interpretivism, therefore, prefer qualitative methods. See Interpretivism for more information.
Theory of positivism in sociology
Positivism was founded by French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798 - 1857), initially as a philosophical movement. He believed in and founded the science of sociology, which was the study of social phenomena in the same way as people then (and now) studied natural phenomena.
Comte cultivated his ideas about positivism from 18th and 19th-century thinkers such as David Hume and Immanuel Kant. He also took inspiration from Henri de Saint-Simon, who acknowledged the increasing importance of science and the use of scientific methods to study and observe society. From this, Comte used the term 'sociology' to describe the social science that explained social structures and phenomena.
Comte is also known as the founder of sociology.
Émile Durkheim's positivism
French sociologist Émile Durkheim was a well-known positivist. Greatly influenced by the ideas of Auguste Comte, Durkheim combined sociological theory with empirical research methodology.
He was the first to establish sociology as an academic discipline in France and became the first sociology professor.
Durkheim's positivism refined Comte's scientific approach to studying society. He argued that through scientific methods, sociologists should be able to, with high accuracy, predict the impacts of changes in society.
Changes in society can include things like a sudden increase in crime and unemployment, or a decrease in marriage rates.
Durkheim believed in using the comparative method in researching society. The comparative method involves looking for correlations, patterns or other relationships between variables in different groups. His famous study of suicide is a good example of the comparative method in sociological research.
Durkheim's Study of Suicide
Durkheim carried out a systematic study of suicide (1897) to find out which social forces or structures affected the suicide rate, as they were particularly high at the time. To complete this, he used the scientific method and studied the common factors among the people who had committed suicide.
In this way, he established the 'social fact' that there was a high suicide rate due to high levels of anomie (chaos). Low levels of social integration caused anomie, according to Durkheim.
Durkheim's study of suicide is an example of how human behaviour can be studied using data, logic, and reasoning.
Characteristics of positivism
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